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Oil Futures Ease in Asia Amid Fresh Signs of Glut

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November 11, 2016

By Dan Strumpf

Oil futures slipped in Asian trade Friday, extending their recent declines amid a persistent crude glut and dimming expectations for a production cut by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in December traded at $44.40 a barrel, down 26 cents, or 0.6%, in the Globex electronic session. January Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange lost 20 cents, or 0.4%, to $45.64 a barrel.

Crude futures built on their earlier losses during the New York trading session, which saw declines of more than 1% in both crude contracts after the International Energy Agency reported a record OPEC production in October. The cartel pumped 33.83 million barrels a daylast month, the agency said, a daunting figure that underscores the scale of action needed by the group in order to stabilize prices.

OPEC is set to hold a meeting at the end of November, where members are set to approve a plan to cap production between 32.5 million and 33 million barrels a day. Prices have fallen in recent weeks on expectations that the cut will be difficult to pull off.

Meanwhile, the election of Donald Trump as the next American president has added additional uncertainty into the oil market. Mr. Trump has pledged to loosen restrictions on U.S. oil production, which could boost output further, send prices lower and further complicate OPEC's role in the oil market .

"It is thought Trump ... will push to make the U.S. more self-reliant via shale fields, so negative on the outlook for oil prices if the U.S. ramps up production," said Stuart Ive, private client manager at OM Financial. "This thought could also question OPEC's resolve to cap production levels."

Earlier this week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration raised its forecast for U.S. crude output, saying production would fall slower than expected due in part to more drilling in Texas.